The Open University of Hong Kong

Past Events

Since the establishment of IIBG, various research activities have been organized in the forms of seminars, workshops, public lectures and executive education programmes. In addition, our staff have been actively participated in various international and regional conferences and delivered paper presentations.

Seminars

School Research Seminar on 'Price and Volatility Sensitivity of Utility and Energy Stocks in Commodity Markets: Evidence from the Doha Amendment'

Date: 27 June 2018

Speaker: Dr Karen Wong, Assistant Professor, Lee Shau Kee School of Business and Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong

Content: In this seminar, price and volatility sensitivity of utility and energy stocks in the commodity markets were examined. The authors first examine how environmental regulations, such as the Paris Agreement, affect the stock markets. Second, how companies in Western and Eastern countries reacted after the Doha Amendment was adopted by their governments were evaluated. Finally, the authors presented multiple regressions and conducted a Markov switching model in an event study. The findings show consistent company performances within the same industry group. The energy market has various effects on particular industry companies. US companies that are presumed to be well developed change the most in response to changes in energy regulations. All of these observations depend on which commodity price is applied.

School Research Seminar on 'The Mediating Role of Idiosyncratic Deals on the Relationships between Coaching and Organizational Citizenship Behaviour'

Date: 20 June 2018

Speaker: Dr Ray Hui, Assistant Professor, Lee Shau Kee School of Business and Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong

Content: This study examines the performance implications of guanxi-related perk expenditures among listed Chinese firms. Specifically, it investigates how these expenditures influence long-term market-based corporate performance (Tobin’s Q and market share) as compared with marketing expenditures. It also examines if political connections moderate this influence. Overall, the findings suggest that guanxi-related perks play an essential marketing role in enhancing long-term corporate success. Furthermore, although marketing expenditures exert much stronger influence on Tobin’s Q than guanxi-related perks do, they exert no significant influence on market share. In summary, despite firms’ much heavier investments in traditional marketing activities than guanxi-related perk activities, the findings highlight the significant performance contribution that guanxi-related perks can still make to a firm. Moreover, this study reveals that political connections weaken the positive impact of guanxi-related perks on both performance measures, thus reminding executives of the dampening effect of these connections on the effective use of perk spending.

School Research Seminar on 'Impact of Perk Expenditures and Marketing Expenditures on Corporate Performance in China: The Moderating Role of Political Connections'

Date:13 June 2018

Speaker: Dr Leung Tak Yan, Associate Professor, Lee Shau Kee School of Business and Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong

Content: This study examines the performance implications of guanxi-related perk expenditures among listed Chinese firms. Specifically, it investigates how these expenditures influence long-term market-based corporate performance (Tobin’s Q and market share) as compared with marketing expenditures. It also examines if political connections moderate this influence. Overall, the findings suggest that guanxi-related perks play an essential marketing role in enhancing long-term corporate success. Furthermore, although marketing expenditures exert much stronger influence on Tobin’s Q than guanxi-related perks do, they exert no significant influence on market share. In summary, despite firms’ much heavier investments in traditional marketing activities than guanxi-related perk activities, the findings highlight the significant performance contribution that guanxi-related perks can still make to a firm. Moreover, this study reveals that political connections weaken the positive impact of guanxi-related perks on both performance measures, thus reminding executives of the dampening effect of these connections on the effective use of perk spending.

School Research Seminar on 'Institutional Development and Firm Performance in Contexts with Different Environmental Dynamism'

Date: 6 June 2018

Speaker: Ms Susanna Wong, Lecturer, Lee Shau Kee School of Business and Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong

Content: Although it is known that the institutional transformation in transition economies varies, it is unclear how such variations influence firm performance. In the paper presented in this seminar, the authors examine how cross-country variations in institutional development in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) affect firm profitability. This paper contributes to IB research on the role of institutions by demonstrating that the benefits of having a more developed institutional environment differs significantly across firms depending on the nature of the industry in which firms operate. Based on a sample of over 64,000 observations in 16 CEE countries, the analysis shows that institutional reforms are particularly beneficial in industries characterized by high levels of technological dynamism, but conversely their value is limited in industries that exhibit lower levels of technological dynamism. By contrast, higher levels of market dynamism within an industry motivate firms to internalize more functions. As a result, a completely opposite pattern of results is observed in such industries where the role of institutions becomes less positive.

Research Seminar on 'The Need for Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) for Optimization Research'

Content: Good Laboratory Practice has been a part of non-clinical research for over 40 years. Operations Research, despite having many papers discussing standards being published over the same period of time, has yet to embrace standards that underpin its research. This talk will examine the need to adopt standards. Specifically, a concrete set of recommendations that the community should adopt are suggested and how the proposals could be progressed are discussed.

Research Seminar on 'Advancing New Theory Development in Management Research:

Contributing Factors, Investigative Approach, and Proposed Topics'

Date: 12 Dec 2017

Speaker: Professor Joseph Cheng, IIBG Distinguished Professor, Professor Emeritus of Business Administration, College of Business, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.

Content: This Research Workshop looks into the New Theory Development in management. It discusses the critical steps and the contributing factors of new theory development. It further suggests some research topics for management and provides some challenges that will be faced in the future.

School Research Seminar on 'Examining the Impact of Chinese Cultural Values on Emotional Labour Acting Strategies'

Date: 16 Aug 2017

Speaker: Dr Bobbie Chan, Associate Professor, Lee Shau Kee School of Business and Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong

Content: Service organizations commonly impose either explicitly or implicitly, requirements on how employees display their positive emotions and suppress negative emotions during service delivery. In response, employees either fake the necessary emotion (termed as “surface acting”), or show their genuine emotion by putting themselves into the shoes of their customers (termed as “deep acting”). These organizational display rules and employees’ emotional acting strategies developed in the West may not be able to fully capture the essence of interpersonal relationship in Chinese culture characterized by a high degree of relational harmony, respect for hierarchy, and shame. The results of an empirical study on nursing professionals support that specific Chinese cultural values do play a part in affecting compliance with organizational display rules and employees’ emotional acting strategies.

School Research Seminar on 'Antecedents of Pay Disparity in Chinese Listed Companies'

Date: 2 Aug 2017

Speaker: Dr Leung Tak Yan, Associate Professor, Lee Shau Kee School of Business and Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong

Content: Growing income inequality has been a major concern worldwide. Contemporaneous management remuneration practice which is characterized by huge pay disparity between management and ordinary workers apparently contributes to the phenomenon. Much of the previous research on pay disparity focuses on its consequences and is mostly based on data from western countries. This seminar contributes to the literature by exploring antecedents of pay disparity in an emerging economy like China. Using a sample of Chinese listed companies from 2008–2011, it investigates what mechanisms can restrain pay disparity between CEOs and employees. It finds that while CEO power leads to greater pay disparity, monitoring by compensation committees, regulatory supervision, and public monitoring can restrain pay disparity in some circumstances. Effectiveness of these mechanisms tends to be influenced by organizational context such as ownership structure and by institutional factors such as subnational cultural climate.

School Research Seminar on 'Personality and Contextual Influence on Team-Member Exchange'

Date: 19 July 2017

Speaker: Dr Rebecca Lau, Associate Professor, Lee Shau Kee School of Business and Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong

Content: In view of the benefits of team-member exchange (TMX) and the limited studies on its antecedents, this seminar examines how propensity to trust, reciprocation wariness, and exchange ideology may impact TMX, and how task interdependence and shared leadership may interact with these personality traits to promote or hinder TMX. This examination provides practitioners with insights on strengthening team members’ exchange relationships with appropriate work design. The seminar further explores how TMX may be associated with work-life balance. Such exploration may suggest practitioners an economical way to help employees achieve a better balance between their work life and family life. Results of the pilot study and progress of the study will be shared.

School Research Seminar on 'The Power of Relationships Inside and Outside Work Settings on Achieving Work-Life Balance'

Date: 5 July 2017

Speaker: Dr Rebecca Lau, Associate Professor, Lee Shau Kee School of Business and Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong

Content: Work-life balance is no longer a new topic. Yet, it remains a challenge to almost all employers and employees. Researchers have long advised employers to devise different organizational measures to help employees achieve work-life balance. Many of these measures, however, incur costs which may be difficult to justify if the amount incurred is substantial, particularly for small- and medium-sized enterprises. In view of these limitations, this seminar looks into the topic of work-life balance from a different perspective. It proposes that an individual’s relationships with others inside and outside organizational settings may help one achieve work-life balance. On the basis of social exchange theory, it is proposed that when one develops close relationships with coworkers, the individual receives resources that can improve his/her functioning at work. Likewise, close relationships with others in the family and community can bring one various resources that can improve his/her arrangements in family life. In addition, one may receive resources that are cross-domain, that is, resources related to the work life from the family and community as well as resources related to the family life from work. The availability of these resources from either domain can improve the quality of the other domain, leading to work-life enrichment. Based upon this model, recommendations are developed for organizations to strengthen employees’ relationships with different parties inside and outside work settings.

School Research Seminar on 'Family Board Representation and Relative CEO Compensation'

Date: 21 June 2017

​Speaker: Dr Leung Tak Yan, Associate Professor, Lee Shau Kee School of Business and Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong

Content: In agency theory, remuneration contracts can be designed to mitigate agency problems inherent in different ownership structures. In practice, compensation is not always designed optimally. Instead, compensation is a tool that managers or controlling shareholders can use to extract private benefits at the expense of other corporate stakeholders. This seminar examines the determinants of CEO pay relative to worker pay in Chinese family firms, with particular interest in the effectiveness of board monitoring in alleviating agency problems related to executive compensation. It is found that family firms with greater family board representation award higher relative CEO compensation. Board independence can dilute family influence on boards in determining relative CEO compensation. Overall, it is suggested that variation in board composition determines its potentials for alleviating agency problems in family firms.

School Research Seminar on 'The Moderating Role of Dynamic Managerial Capabilities in the Relationship between Asset Specificity and Entry Mode Choice: A Case of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises'

Date: 7 June 2017

Speaker: Ms Sindy Chung, Lecturer, Lee Shau Kee School of Business and Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong

Content: Transaction cost economics is a widely accepted framework to study foreign entry mode selection for enterprises. Asset specificity, coupled with behavioral and environmental uncertainties are the major determinants on firms’ mode choices. Nowadays, small and medium-sized enterprises play a vital role in international business of which entrepreneurs are the locus of entry mode strategy formulation. Taking their dynamic managerial capabilities—managerial social capital, managerial cognition and managerial human capital—into consideration can provide us with a wider lens on how entrepreneurial capabilities can minimize hazards arisen from behavioral and environmental uncertainties. In so doing, the locomotive of transaction cost economics—asset specificity—can be safeguarded, weakening the propensity of entrepreneurs to choose hierarchical control over hybrid and market in this rapidly changing marketplace.

Research Semianr on 'Shorting Activity and Return Predictability: Evidence from an Information Shock'

Contents: This study investigated whether and how an exogenous shock to the public information environment created by the mandatory adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) and other regulatory changes in 2005 related to short sellers’ use of private information. Using monthly firm-level data from 20 countries on the price (loan fees) and quantity of shares available for lending in the shorting market, the authors of the study documented that the ability of outward shifts in shorting demand and supply to predict future negative stock returns, or equivalently the profitability of equity shorting, dropped significantly in the post-shock period. It was shown that the underlying mechanism through which the profitability of shorting decreased after the shock was an increase in investors’ consensus of opinion. We also found that a greater reduction in return predictability occured (i) in negative earnings announcement months, (ii) when firms had larger accounting accruals, and (iii) for firms domiciled in countries with stronger implementation credibility and more disclosure changes from local GAAP to mandatory IFRS. Taken together, we concluded that mandatory IFRS and other regulatory changes reduced the information advantage of short sellers by crowding out their use of private information.

School Research Seminar on 'On Motivating Sustainable Consumption: The Contrasting Effects of Guilt and Shame Emotions'

Date: 24 May 2017

Speaker: Dr. Maggie Chu, Assistant Professor, Lee Shau Kee School of Business & Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong.

Contents: Like other forms of transgressions, wasteful consumption might also lead to feelings of guilt and shame simultaneously. A fundamental difference between these two emotions was that guilt-laden people focused on the bad behaviors committed but shame-laden people focused on the bad qualities in themselves. It is speculated that this may differentially affect people’s self-efficacy perceptions, and thus leading guilt to have a positive impact on consumer likelihood to stop wastage but shame to have a negative impact on such likelihood. It was also predicted that when people construed their wasteful consumption at high (versus low) level, feelings of shame (guilt) tended to predominate and when waste-reducing behavior was instrumental to gaining social approval, the negative impact of shame would be alleviated.

School Research Seminar on 'Sustainable Human Resource Management: Rethinking a Conceptual Framework'

Date: 10 May 2017

Speaker: Dr. Alex Mak, Assistant Professor, Lee Shau Kee School of Business & Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong.

Contents: This seminar was based on a paper which was intended as a contribution to the ongoing conceptual development of sustainable human resource management. So far the conceptual foundation for sustainable human resource management was based on the three-bottom line concept of sustainable development. However, such adaptation missed some important considerations that the management of human resources in a sustainable sense had to be taken into account of. Further, scholars had only addressed each of these three related bottom-lines separately instead of considering them as an integrated and interrelated entity. If we were to truly facilitate a sustainable management of human resources one would have to go back to the origin and conceptualise what sustainability in the management of human resource was, in terms of its scope and function.

School Research Seminar on 'Situated Knowledge in Power Relations: Its Legitimization, Sharing and Appropriation'

Date: 26 April 2017

Speaker: Dr. Eddie Law, Assistant Professor, Lee Shau Kee School of Business & Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong.

Contents: Much of the knowledge management literature focused on knowledge workers in formal office settings and treated knowledge as an objectified and commodified asset. However, the theoretical lens of ‘knowledge-as-situated-practice’, which focused on how individuals come to apprehend and define knowledge that was embedded and situated in everyday work practices, had challenged such conventional wisdom. The current study seek to better theorize the ‘knowledge-as-situated-practice’ perspective by focusing on its contentious nature with regard to its legitimization, sharing, and appropriation within webs of power relations in a non-traditional, peripheral context – bamboo scaffolding in Hong Kong. Through semi-structured interviews with scaffolding managers and frontline scaffolders, this seminar explored how bamboo scaffolders navigated their risks through the effective learning and utilization of their highly tacit and situated risk assessment knowledge. The authors were also interested in examining whether and how this kind of tacit and situated knowledge could be legitimized and appropriated vis-à-vis the increasing demands on scientific designs and formal safety measures.

Research Seminar on 'Business Ecosystems: A New Business System Research Frontier'

Date: 25 April 2017

Speaker: Professor Stuart Orr, Honorary Professor of Lee Shau Kee School of Business and Administration and Director of Doctor of Business Administration, Deakin Business School, Deakin University, Australia.

Contents: In response to increased disruption in the business environment, a new form of adaptive business community had been developed, which was called Business Ecosystems. In these systems customers, partners, competitors, and suppliers innovated and shared resources, whilst the ecosystem’s collaboration pathways adapted to respond to the external environment. They were characterised by their innovation capacity, loose coupling of actors, resource development capacity, flexibility and adaptation. A Business Ecosystem theory was developed from a systematic analysis of the extant literature, followed by a statistical and a systematic analysis of the network literature. It identified three high level constructs: strategy development, governance and sustainability of the ecosystem. The preconditions for these (sub-constructs) were also identified: opportunity, innovation and value creation, profitability and actor satisfaction. In addition, it was proposed that these preconditions were the result of the ecosystem governance structure, trust, sharing of resources, knowledge sharing, operation and structure of the network, standards, goal alignment, alignment of actor objectives, leadership, communication, collaboration, interdependence and alignment of functions. This theory created the basis for empirical testing of the relationships in Business Ecosystems.

School Research Seminar on 'Service with a Smile and Something Else?

A Study of Emotional Labour and Its Impact on Customers’ Service Evaluation in the Chinese Context'

Date: 29 March 2017

Speaker: Dr. Woo Ka Shing, Associate Professor, Lee Shau Kee School of Business and Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong.

Contents: Keeping aligned with the explosive growth in the global service industry, studies on emotional labour (EL in short) proliferated in the past decades since Hochschild’s (1983) seminal work. Notwithstanding significant research findings of past studies conducted across various service and cultural settings, there were certain missing links this study aimed to find. A conceptual model was developed and an empirical study conducted in two phases respectively on frontline service employees and customers. This research seminar was about the second phase of the study focusing on the impact of EL micro-expressions on customers’ service evaluation.

Research Seminar on 'Effective Publishing in English Language Peer Reviewed Journals in Business & Management'

Contents: Dr Koh, based on an in-depth case study conducted in the Toshiba Corporation in Japan, which participated in IUGC for reducing greenhouse gases in Yokohama city from April 2010 to March 2015, discussed the factors influencing the coordination of technology systems among companies aiming for mass production and identified the organizational processes among companies that have been commercialized. Dr Koh presented the findings that project leaders who have both technological knowledge and an understanding of the overall process are able to manage the outcomes and coordination of the project; and the adoption of a standard interface can enable companies to establish mass production with improved coordination.

Research Seminar on 'Publishing in Top Journals: Common Problems and Solutions'

Date: 21 December 2016

Speaker: Professor Mario Kafouros, IIBG Distinguished Professor, Professor of International Business and Innovation, Leeds University Business School, UK.

Contents: This seminar considered a wide range of problems and limitations that can get papers rejected from good international journals. Professor Mario Kafouros also presented how authors could overcome some of these challenges and in turn increased the chances of getting published in good journals and making studies more impactful.

Research Seminar on 'Knowledge Exploration/Exploitation and Its effects on Firm Performance'

Date: 21 December 2016

Speaker: Mrs Eva Mavroudi, Leeds University Business School, UK.

Contents: Prior research emphasized that firms should pursue both knowledge exploration and exploitation in order to enhance their innovation performance and competitiveness. This seminar focused on a current study that examined whether and when firms should specialize in exploration or exploitation activities internally, and proposed that industry orientation influenced the effects of specialization strategies on firm performance. The results, based of the analysis of a panel dataset of 37,945 firms, showed that pursuing an exploitation strategy affected negatively performance when firms operated in an exploitative-oriented industry. Conversely, pursuing an exploitation strategy affected positively performance when firms operated in a hybrid or in an exploratory-orientated industry. It was shown that this pattern depended on the orientation of the industry in which a firm operated. The latter affected the availability of potentially complementary exploitative- and explorative-opportunities that firms were exposed to, the value of such opportunities, and the transaction costs of accessing them.

Research Seminar on 'The Value of Intangible Assets in Different Institutional Environments'

Date: 16 December 2016

Speaker: Professor Mario Kafouros, IIBG Distinguished Professor, Professor of International Business and Innovation, Leeds University Business School, UK.

Contents: This seminar focused on research that has recognized the advantages of ownership ties by identifying what determines the effectiveness of ownership in enhancing firm performance. It was contended that performance variations arise because each focal firm was partially or fully owned by multiple organizations that differ in the intangible assets they possess, in the countries from which they originated and, therefore, in how much they could help the focal firm generate rents. The analysis of over 22,000 observations across 23 countries explained why and how the rent-generating potential of such intangible assets changed when they were deployed in countries that differ in their institutional development and when the focal firm’s institutional context differed considerably from that of the organizations that owned the intangible assets.

Contents: This seminar focused on how you can prepare yourself to publish the results of your scientific research in high quality journals. The seminar discussed topics such as identifying what journals to target, how to write the paper, how to submit the paper and how to respond to reviewer’s comments.

School Research Seminar on 'Managing Coopetition

with Employees: A Knowledge-Appropriation Perspective'

Date: 24 August 2016

Speaker: Dr. Eddie Law, Assistant Professor, Lee Shau Kee School of Business & Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong.

Contents: This seminar was based on a paper which conceptualizes the management of knowledge appropriation tensions between a firm and its employees as an important manifestation of coopetition management. The seminar addressed the deficiencies of the knowledge management (KM) literature in analyzing the nature and dynamics of different knowledge appropriation strategies and the coopetition literature in examining the coopetitive relationship between a firm and its employees. Theoretical propositions were developed to illustrate how the firm’s adoption of a tighter appropriation regime (i.e. a more competitive approach) vis-à-vis a looser appropriation regime (i.e. a more cooperative approach) would affect its coopetitive relationship with the employees and subsequently its long-term KM and innovation performances.

School Research Seminar on 'Stock Return Anomalies

from Ending-digit Effects Around the World (FDS project)'

Date: 10 August 2016

Speaker: Dr. Toro Chen, Assistant Professor, Lee Shau Kee School of Business & Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong.

Contents: Using extensive daily data from 68 countries, the seminar speaker found excess buying when prices started to surpass the zero-ending threshold (i.e. when the ending digit is 1) as it was perceived by traders as the beginning of an upward momentum. This led to abnormal positive return for all price points one penny above the zero-ending round number. In contrast, there was excess selling when prices started to drop below the zero-ending threshold (i.e. when the ending digit is 9) which resulted in abnormal negative return for all price points one penny below the zero-ending round number. This ending-digit effect remained robust in various sub-samples classified according to country characteristics or industry characteristics.

Research Seminar on 'Humble Accounting and Stock Price Crash Risk:
New Paradigm, Methods, and Suggestions for Future Research'

Contents: Professor Kim began by discussing the role of accounting in our society and humble accounting as a means to control downside risk. Using the impact of accounting conservatism on stock price crash risk as an example, he introduced a new paradigm for accounting research – the third moment approach. Fruitful areas for future research in accounting were also introduced.

Research Seminar on 'Contemporary Developments in
Global Management: The Talent Management Challenge'

Contents: The seminar provided a broad overview of the current scope of globalization and examined how the challenges in the management of people might be addressed by ‘talent management’.

School Research Seminar on 'Do Political Connectedness,
Government Subsidy, and Free Trade Zone Matter to Internationalization?'

Date: 20 January 2016

Speaker: Dr. T.Y. Leung, Assistant Professor, Lee Shau Kee School of Business & Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong.

Contents: It explored the factors which lead to export success, focusing specifically on government-related support and subsidy, political connectedness, and the establishment of a free trade zone.

School Research Seminar on 'Attitude towards Hong Kong Outbound

Tourists' Tipping Policy between Tour Escorts and Tour Participants'

Date: 20 January 2016

Speaker: Ms. Winnie Chiu, Assistant Lecturer, Lee Shau Kee School of Business & Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong.

Contents: It focused on the perceptions of the current and proposed tipping policy from the perspectives of tour escorts and tour participants. Using the qualitative methodology of content analysis, a notable divergence was revealed in views on the present tipping policy and its implementation between the tour escorts and tour participants.

Contents: In our financialised era of global markets, this public lecture considered if practical wisdom (phronesis) rather than information is the ultimate commodity. To address this question, Professor Markellos offered an overview of the past 30 years of empirical finance through his research. This journey started from an obsession with models that describe rational macro-market price variations. It then recognised the importance of diversity, behaviour, psychology and cognitive limits under the rubric of an "Investment Consumer Funnel Model". In this context, financial models were abstract paintings rather than simple photographs. The way forward took us from econometric models of prices to "Financial Reality Mining" in the online and physical world of text, emotions, images and sound. In this world, data brought academic disciplines and business functions much closer. If investors and markets continued to fail in accepting that they were in the business of responsible business, we might have to look for help from artificial intelligence in our quest for wisdom.

Public Lecture on 'Sovereign Debt Markets in Light of the Shadow Economy'

Contents: The inherently mysterious nature of the informal economy meant that its drivers, consequences and theoretical underpinnings remain ambiguous. Tax responsibility and the informal sector are often highlighted in the press as the root of the sovereign debt crisis in certain countries. Rating agencies also emphasized the protagonistic role of the informal sector by justifying recent downgrades of country credit ratings on the basis of pervasive tax evasion. Professor Markellos addressed these issues on the basis of the results from a recent study he published which investigated the controversial role of the informal sector in the economy of 64 countries by focusing for the first time on the impact it had on sovereign debt markets. Results confirmed the main hypothesis that the informal sector had significant adverse effects on credit ratings and lending costs. The results did not change with respect to the stage of economic development of a country and contradicted views about the possibility of significant economic benefits arising from the informal sector.

Public Lecture on 'Competing in the New Innovation-Driven Global Economy: Opportunities and Challenges for Hong Kong'

Date: 29 December 2016

Speaker: Professor Joseph Cheng, IIBG Distinguished Professor, Professor Emeritus of Business Administration, College of Business, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA.

Contents: Innovation was about creating new knowledge (ideas, methods, technologies) or applying existing knowledge in new ways. There was great heterogeneity in innovation. Some were original “break-through” innovations with high value-add and a wide impact. Others were “recombinant” innovations that had the potential to disrupt existing fields. Most were “incremental” in nature with limited, short-term benefits. As the global economy became increasingly innovation-driven, many businesses would fail unless they are able to continuously discover new and better ways of doing things. What did all this mean for indigenous Hong Kong firms? How could they strengthen their innovation capability for enhanced international competitiveness? This lecture examined the opportunities and challenges of an innovation-driven global economy for Hong Kong and explored their business and policy implications.

Public Lecture on 'Entrepreneur or Wantrepreneur?'

Date: 5 December 2016

Speaker: Mr. Derek Kwik, Managing Partner, BraveSoldier Ventures.

Contents: This public lecture introduced the essential criteria of being an entrepreneur instead of a wantrepreneur. It provided the business knowledge and experiences on being an entrepreneur to our outstanding business students.

One-day Executive Education Programme

International Market Entry Strategy

Date: 20 December 2016

Time: 9:00-5:00pm

Venue: The Landmark Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong

Speaker: Professor Mario Kafouros, IIBG Distinguished Professor, Professor of International Business and Innovation, Leeds University Business School, UK.

Contents: During the programme, the C-level executives, directors and managers from different business sectors exchanged ideas about international market entry strategies.

Paper Presentations

Paper Presentation on 'Stock Return Anomalies from Ending-digit Effects Around the World (FDS project)'

Date: 26-29 June 2016

Venue Sweden

Presenter: Dr. Toro Chen, Assistant Professor, Lee Shau Kee School of Business & Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong.

Paper Presentation on 'Managing Coopetition with Employees: A knowledge-Appropriation

Perspective' in Strategic Management Society (SMS) Special Conference

Date: 5-7 June 2016

Venue: Italy

Presenter(s): Jointly presented by Dr. Eddie Law, Assistant Professor, Lee Shau Kee School of Business & Administration, The Open University of Hong Kong and Ka Wan Ng, Library, City University of Hong Kong.

Topic of the Public Lecture: 'How to Embed Sustainable Thinking in Corporate Strategies of Government-owned Public Companies in Hong Kong' (Watch Online)

Contents: This inauguration ceremony cum public lecture built up networks with the industries and academies as their representatives were invited. The public lecture also introduced the strategies on corporate governance which gained the academics’ knowledge in this area.